What is CLAT?

The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is conducted by one of the 21 National Law Universities (NLU) on a rotational basis. The CLAT 2018 Examination will be conducted by NUALS Kochi (The National University of Advanced Legal Studies Kochi) on May 13th, 2018.

The exam is to be held at 65 examination centers throughout India and will act as a channel for aspirants to get admission in 21 NLUs. Candidates can be admitted into various Undergraduate level and Post Graduate Law programs on appearing for this examination.

Structure of CLAT exam

Mode of Examination

The examination is only in online format

Duration of the Examination

2 hours

Total Number of Questions in the examination

200 questions

Maximum Number of Possible Marks

200

Language of Examination

English

Type of questions

All questions are of the objective type i.e. they are multiple choice questions

Marking Scheme

Each correct answer is awarded one mark whereas each incorrect answer is penalized with a deduction of 1/4th mark. No marks are awarded or deducted in case of not attempting the question.

Sections and their Weightage

The exam consists of five different sections, namely:

English – 40 marks and hence 40 questions

Elementary Mathematics- 20 marks and hence 20 questions

General Knowledge/ Current Affairs- 50 marks and hence 50 questions

Logical Reasoning- 40 marks and hence 40 questions

Legal Reasoning- 50 marks and hence 50 questions

No specific time allotment exists for each section.

CLAT 2018 Eligibility Criteria

CLAT UG

All those candidates applying for the examination must either be an Indian citizen or a Non- Resident Indian (NRI) or for the NRI sponsored category.

Candidates must be below or of the age of 20 years as of 1st July 2018.

Candidates must be below or of the age of 22 years as of 1st July 2018 in case of SC/ST/ OBC/Specially Abled Persons (SAP) category candidates.

Another criterion to appear for the examination is the candidate must meet the below conditions in regards to their Qualifying Examination (i.e 10+2 examination)-
(i) Forty-five percent (45%) marks must be obtained in case of candidates belonging to Unreserved /OBC /Specially Abled Persons (SAP) and other categories, and
(ii) Forty Percent (40%) marks must be obtained in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST categories.

Candidates who are appearing in the qualifying examination in March/April 2017 i.e in their 12th standard will also be eligible to appear in the CLAT-2017 online examination. But, such candidates will be required to provide evidence of them passing their qualifying examination at the time of admission. If they fail to do so, they shall lose their right to be considered for admission.

The result of qualifying examination (i.e., 10+2) must be submitted by the candidate at the time of admission if they fail to do so, the candidate will not be eligible for admission to the Course.

CLAT PG

All Candidates must have a three-year LLB degree or a three-year integrated LLB degree or another equivalent degree from a Recognized Board/University.

All candidates must have obtained at least 55% marks in aggregate in their qualifying degree examination.

A relaxation of 5% marks is provided i.e. they need to have 50% marks in the qualifying LLB degree exam if the candidate belongs to the SC/ST category.

Candidates who are appearing in the qualifying examination in March/April 2017 will also be eligible to appear in the CLAT-2017 online examination. But, such candidates will be required to provide evidence of them passing their qualifying examination at the time of admission. If they fail to do so, they will lose their right to be considered for admission.

Application forms and submission procedure

The application process is completely online. One can begin their application procedure by visiting the official CLAT website. The application process for the year 2018 will begin on January 1st, 2018 and end on March 31st, 2018.

The candidate must begin by clicking on the “Apply Online” button and then creating username and password. The candidate must register themselves with the required details. Details such as Name, Date of Birth, Email ID will need to be filled out.

The Email ID and phone number must be filled out properly as all correspondence will happen via email and SMS.

After the creation of Username and Password, a candidate must login with these credentials to access the rest of the application.

After reading the set of instructions given, the candidate will have to proceed to fill out the application. More personal details will need to be filled out here.

All relevant certificates will need to be kept nearby to fill out details accurately.

Next, the candidate will need to select their preference of the present National Law Universities. Candidates will not have an option to modify these later so these options must be ranked carefully.

Next, relevant documents will need to be uploaded in a scanned format along with a photograph and signature in mentioned dimension and size.

The next section is the payment section. The application fee is 4000 INR and 3500 INR for candidates from the SC/ST category. Payment can be done in both online and offline modes.

In the ONLINE mode, one can proceed via debit/credit card or net banking. In the offline mode, the candidate will need to download the Challan and visit the nearest ICICI Bank Branch and deposit the needed amount. The candidate is advised to keep the Candidate Copy of Challan for future reference.

Finally, after reviewing and submitting the application, one can print out a copy for future reference.

Admit Card

The admit card can be downloaded for a specified date that will be released by the institute conducting the CLAT 2018 examination. Candidates will be able to access their admit card by filling out their login credentials. The admit card will consist of details such as date and time of examination, exam center, hall ticket number and so on. It is mandatory to not only carry this to the examination hall but also keep it for further reference as it will be needed to check the result.

The admit cards can be downloaded by logging in using the username and password.

Admission Procedure

Candidates are allotted seats for CLAT admissions on ‘merit-cum-preference’ basis. This means the admission process will take place based on the CLAT score that the candidate obtains. According to the list of preferences that a candidate had initially filled in, they will be given admission.

Only those students that meet the cutoff will be able to take part in the counselling procedure.

The concerned authorities will release a first admission list based on the above criteria. Candidates who have been allotted a seat will have the option to choose one of the three options.

Lock- They decide to stick with the institute and program that they have been allotted.

Shifting- Candidates are not satisfied with their current allotment and would like to participate in the further round to go higher up on their preference list.

Withdrawal- A candidate can choose to exit the counselling procedure before the final allotments have been made.

Consequent rounds take place and the aspirants can choose any of the above-mentioned options. In case the aspirant decides to accept the seat in an institute, they must reserve their seat by paying 50,000 INR. This happens in the reporting center along with certificate verification. After finalizing their seat, they pay the rest of their admission fee to their respective NLU.

Notification

CLAT stands for Common Law Admission Test and this exam is conducted by The National University of Advanced Legal Studies. On writing this exam, candidates will be eligible for the following courses:

BA LLB (Hons)

LLM Programmes

B.Com LLB (Hons)

BSW LLB (Hons)

B.Sc LLB (Hons)

The notifications for the exam start by early December 2017 and the registration process will start tentatively from January 2018. All interested candidates are advised to check the official website for the notifications and other details. Candidates applying for this exam are requested to go through the eligibility criteria before applying.

Additionally, there are many organizations that consider this exam for their recruitment process too. Some of them are:

Indian Oil Corporation Limited

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited

Power grid Corporation of India Limited

National Thermal Power Corporation Limited

Syllabus

The questions in the exam will be asked from the following subjects:

English

Mathematics

Legal Aptitude

Logical Reasoning

General Knowledge

Current Affairs

The following are the topics in each section:

English

· Reading Comprehension

· Antonyms

· Synonyms

· Analogies

· Idioms and Phrases

· One word substitution

· Sentence Improvement

· Rearrangement of words

· Fill in the blanks

· Spotting errors

· Inappropriate usage of words

General Knowledge and Current Affairs

· Books and Authors

· Latest Happenings

· Important People

· Technology

· Sports

· Economics

· Science

· Events of National and International importance

· Important places

Mathematics

· Number systems

· Surds and Indices

· Square Roots

· Fractions and Decimals

· Approximation

· Ratio and Proportion

· Averages

· HCF

· LCM

· Logarithms

· Simplifications

· Interest

· Discounts

· Partnership

· Areas

· Volumes

· Profit and Loss

· Percentages

Legal Aptitude

· International Law

· Legal Terms

· Legal Maxims

· Family Law

· Criminal Law

· Indian Constitution

Contracts and Torts

· Logical Reasoning

· Direction and Distance Test

· Statements Assumptions

· Statements Conclusions

· Classification Test

· Coding and Decoding

· Series

· Relationships

· Time Sequence

· Ranking

· Sentence Improvement

CLAT 2018 Important Dates

It is important to know the timeline for the exam as this helps students finish the formalities on time and helps them to prepare for the exam accordingly. The following is the timeline for the exam:

Events

Dates

Start of online application process

1st January 2018

End of online application

31st March 2018

Release of admit cards

20th April 2018

Exam Date

13th Mat 2018

Answer Key release

15th May 2018

Result Announcement

31st May 2018

First seat allotment list released

7th June 2018

Second seat allotment list released

16th June 2018

Last date for withdrawal

19th June 2018

Third seat allotment list released

24th June 2018

Release of second allotment list

2nd week of June 2018

Close of admissions

6th July 2018

For a complete detail timeline, visit the official website.

List of CLAT Examination Centres

This exam is conducted all across the country and the following is a list of all the exam centers:

· Agra

· Amritsar

· Ahmedabad

· Allahabad

· Bardang

· Bilaspur

· Bangalore

· Barabanki

· Bhopal

· Bhubaneshwar

· Coimbatore

· Chandigarh

· Chennai

· Cuttack

· Dehradun

· Delhi

· Faridabad

· Gandhinagar

· Gangtok

· Ghaziabad

· Greater Noida

· Gorakhpur

· Gurgaon

· Guwahati

· Haldwani

· Hisar

· Hyderabad

· Imphal

· Indore

· Jaipur

· Jalandhar

· Vishakhapatnam

· Jammu

· Jamshedpur

· Jodhpur

· Kangra

· Kanpur

· Kochi

· Kota

· Kurukshetra

· Lucknow

· Madurai

· Mohali

· Mumbai

· Muzzafarpur

· Mysore

· Nagpur

· Nainital

· Navi Mumbai

· Noida

· Patiala

· Patna

· Pune

· Raipur

· Ranchi

· Shillong

· Shimla

· Srinagar

· Thiruvananthapuram

· Tiruchirapalli

· Unnao

· Varanasi

· Vijayawada

The conducting authority makes sure that the exam is conducted in as many places across the country to make it accessible to as many aspirants as possible.

Cut-Off

Every college decides its own cut off marks and candidates have to score above this minimum mark to get an admission into that university. It is advised that candidates have a look at the cut off marks for various universities before applying. The following table shows the cut off ranks for a few the participating NLU’s for the year 2017 and 2016:

College Name

2017

2016

National Law School of India University

59

58

National Law Institute University

351

339

National Academy of Legal Studies and Research

130

123

Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai

478

466

Tamil Nadu National Law School

1151

1160

National University of Study and Research in Law

1051

1037

National Law University and Judicial Academy

1124

1103

Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law

801

759

Gujarat National Law University

453

465

National Law University Odisha

1023

1038

National Law University Jodhpur

343

347

Score Validity

The score of the CLAT exam is valid only for a year.

Reservation/Seat Distribution

In most of the institutions, 3% of the seats are reserved for candidates belonging to the PWD category. Additionally, many colleges also provide reservations for women. For example, for the year 2017, the total number of undergraduate law seats available was 2342. Out of this number, 1480 seats were reserved for all India seats, 604 seats were reserved for state category seats and 258 seats were reserved for special category seats. Different colleges have different breakup of seats. The following table gives the breakup for different colleges:

College Name

All India Seats

State wise seats

Special seats

National Law Institute University, Bhopal

80

28

20

NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad

84

21

15

WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata

94

10

23

National Law University, Jodhpur

100

0

15

Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University (RMLNLU), Lucknow

80

80

16

National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kerala

65

55

16

National Law University, Odisha

159

0

21

To know the split up of seats for each college, candidates are requested to visit the official website of the college.

CLAT 2018 Counselling Schedule

The first merit list will be released during the first week of June 2018. Once the list is released, students will have to lock their seats, which essentially is a form of confirmation of the seat. Once a candidate accepts their seat, they will have to proceed forward to pay the fees. Once the first round of counseling is done, the merit list for the second round of counseling is released where candidates will have to follow the same procedure as mentioned above.

When a candidate is allotted a seat, he/she can exercise the following two options:

Lock – confirming the seat

Upward Shifting – Candidates looking for a better seat will opt for this option. In case any vacancies open up, candidates who have opted for this option will be given these seats.

Based on the availability of seats, many rounds of counseling will be conducted. Typically, 4 rounds of counseling will be conducted. The counseling proceedings are closed by the month of July and candidates are requested to pay the fees as soon as they finalize their seats.

Sample Paper

It is advised that candidates practice on the sample papers and previous year papers. In doing so, candidates get an idea on how the questions will be structured in the exam. It also gives the candidates an idea of their preparation level.

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